Uninvited Guests

We seem to have a few guests in the apartment as of late; small, eight-legged guests who don't pay any rent and love to scurry across the walls at inopportune moments. It appears we have a few spiders crashing with us, so to speak.

To me, it's no big deal. I come from North Carolina, so having a spider sharing your domicile is nothing new. To my sweetie, it is a big deal. A very big deal.

He simply cannot stand spiders. If it were up to him, he'd send every last one of them packing and bill them for back-rent as they scuttled out of our home. As for me, I honestly don't care: as long as said spider behaves and doesn't try to bite me or anyone else, the arachnid is more than welcome to stay. If it does misbehave, I relocate it to a bush outside. It's a system that has worked for me for well over a decade and a half. My significant other thinks I am quite insane. I can't help but wonder, why are most people so afraid of spiders?

As a general rule, most spiders are not particularly vicious, are not deadly and will usually leave you alone. There are exceptions to this of course: Australia is known for its highly aggressive and very dangerous arachnids. Black widows can be very vicious and bite unprovoked. If you happen to be allergic, then a bite can be fatal. But most spiders here in Wisconsin are your garden variety, plane Jane arachnids; they are fairly harmless. Why be so frightened of something so small? Is it an instinct, passed down from many generations? Or is it because some people find them "creepy"? I may never really understand.

It seems I'm needed right now; I have to evict another house guest before it faces the Grim Reaper. Or the bottom my better half's shoe.

~Silverwynde